Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum is preparing to reopen in January, when it will display its first digitally born object – an “absolute unit”.
The new object is a social media post originally created by the Museum of English Rural Life, part of the University of Reading, in 2018.
The meme features a 1962 image of an Exmoor Horn ram from the museum’s photography collection, with the caption “look at this absolute unit”. The meme went viral and gained more than 100,000 likes on X, formerly Twitter.
As the first born-digital object acquired by the National Science and Media Museum, the meme is an example of how internet culture can create new lives for old images.
In a press release, the museum said the meme going on display “marks a milestone in the museum in embracing the evolving relationship between photography and the digital age”.
It will be located in the museum’s Kodak gallery. To honour its original context online, it is to go on view on an interactive touchscreen that lets users scroll as if they are using their own social media platforms.
The museum worked closely with Arran Rees, a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds, to develop a method for collecting and displaying social media memes.
UK museum to reopen in January
Ruth Quinn, the museum’s curator of photography and photographic technology, said: “The absolute unit meme is such an important part of popular culture (I even have it printed on a mug) so I’m delighted that we were able to work with Dr Arran Rees to develop a method for collecting and displaying social media, so we can share this work with our visitors in an interactive way.”
The National Science and Media Museum closed in June 2023 for a major refurbishment. The £6 million ‘Sound and Vision’ project includes two new permanent galleries, a new passenger lift, and improvements to the main entrance and foyer.
Images courtesy of the National Science and Media Museum
